The Glass Barrier
by Snowy-Maplette
Summary: People keep telling Alfred that Matthew Williams doesn't exist, which, in his opinion, is a load of BS. One-Shot


Alfred's feet hit the paved walkway that lead up to his home. He jammed the keys that his parents had given him a few moments earlier into the lock. The door swung open on it's hinges without a sound.

The teenager kicked off his mud-stained sneakers. And then without a second thought, Alfred stormed up the stairs like a hurricane. His heavy backpack filled with textbooks, binders, and homework, repeatedly bounced off of his back due to the momentum.

Alfred could hear his dad, who had just entered the house himself, yelling at him to slow down.

Alfred didn't slow down at all. He had places to go. People to see.

He sped up.

Besides, it wasn't like he was going to trip and fall, he knew how to keep his balance.

With a grand leap that allowed him to skip the last few steps, he reached the top. He then proceeded to run down the hall, right toward the second-to-last door on the right. Alfred twisted his body around expertly and slid to a halt right in front of his target

He reached a thin hand out and firmly grasped the round handle sticking out of the door before flicking his wrist around, and wrenched the door wide open. He slammed the creamy white door shut as he practically leaped inside the safety of his own room. Alfred dropped his backpack as if it were a sack of boulders.

The quiet hum of the air-conditioner hung around the room like a swarm of mosquitos. The grating noise was accompanied by the sound of Alfred's hammering heart. His short and shallow breaths served as an accompaniment to the quiet lullaby of the room.

With a heavy sigh, Alfred spun around on his heels, and let his posture collapse into a slouch. He reached out in front of him, extending his arms as far out as they would go. He tipped himself forward, letting gravity take him until the palms of his hands rested against his bedroom door. With his head hung low between his elbows, Alfred's eyes stared down at the wooden floorboards below him.

After a moment of uneasy peace where the young fourteen year old took the time to catch his breath and calm his racing heart, Alfred lifted his head up. A strange fire of determination ignited in his eyes as he whirled around and marched over to the glass door at the far end of his room. He paused for a moment, entranced by his own reflection that seemed almost like a transparent ghost in his brother's room.

"Mattie. Hey Mattie, are you in there?" He asked.

No answer.

"Maaaaaattieeeeeeee come on!"

Nothing.

Alfred tutted and grabbed an old grey hoodie that hung off the edge of his laundry basket. He wrapped the sweater around his arm and began wiping away at the dust and grime on the glass.

"Come on Matthew, I know you're in there!" Alfred sang out and tossed away his hoodie after he determined that the glass was about as clean as he could get it at the moment.

There was no sign of movement in the other room. Alfred tapped away at the glass with his fist, impatiently.

As if by magic, a boy that could have passed as Alfred's twin appeared with his hand raised in greeting.

"Ya, I'm here. What took you so long?" Matthew asked, worry staining his soft voice.

"What took _you_ so long? I've been waiting here forever!" Alfred shot back.

Matthew looked sheepishly at the ground and shrugged.

Alfred regarded Matthew with narrowed eyes before he sighed, and plopped down onto the ground. Matthew did the same.

"Stuff happened."

"What kind of stuff."

"You know. Stuff."

"It'd be nice if you were a bit more descriptive. After all, you were supposed to be home almost two hours ago."

Alfred pulled his knees to his chest, and stretched out his arms behind him to use them as support.

"I got in a fight. Then I had to go to another 'emergency' therapy session." He told his twin as casually as he could. Alfred refused to meet Matthew's eyes.

"You beat someone up?" Matthew asked gently. His head flicking from left to right, up and down in an attempt to scan his brother for any injuries.

"No, it didn't exactly happen like that." Alfred muttered under his breath. Silence fell upon both boys. It wasn't an awkward silence, that was certain. Alfred actually felt quite comfortable just sitting there with his brother, enjoying serenity the quiet brought. Until he couldn't stand it anymore.

"I yelled at that guy from Science class. Then I threw a bunch of pencils and thumb tacks at him, and I may or may not have hit his eye..."

"Again?"

"Yeah."

"This is the third time this month."

"Yeah."

"Any point in asking why?"

"Yes."

"Ok then, why did you do it?"

"He was being a jerk."

"You always say he's jerk."

"He said you didn't exist." Alfred blurted out. His twin winced, and Alfred mirrored the action.

Matthew didn't say anything. He just stared straight into Alfred's eyes with a lost and misty gaze. Alfred managed to go a total of seven and a half seconds before he felt the urge to fill up the awkward silence with words.

"I mean, is this guy for real? Seriously, it's like he enjoys pretending that you're invisible. And this is coming from the same guy who believes in Fairies and the Easter Bunny in high school." Matthew seemed to have come out of his daze and looked up Alfred. Blue eyes meeting blue.

And then, very hesitantly, Matthew asked "Do I exist?"

Alfred scowled and reached out to pat Matthew on the shoulder, only for his fingers to flatten out against the cool surface of the reflective door. Matthew also reached out, lining up his hand to Alfred's.

Alfred hated this glass barrier.

He hated it with all of his heart.

"Of course you do." Alfred stated in a no nonsense way, "What kind of question is that?"

Matthew said nothing. He turned his head to look out of the window of his room. On the other side of the glass, Alfred did the same.

"You do exist, Mattie." Alfred insisted with fiery determination in his voice. After a moment, he twisted his head back around to face his twin. "Look, we're having a conversation now, aren't we?"

Matthew nodded.

"And you have thoughts, feelings, and opinions on stuff, right?"

Another nod.

"Well then there you go." Alfred said with a satisfied smile. The smile only grew wider as he saw the corner of Matthew's lips turn up too, "You exist Mattie, and don't let anyone tell you that you don't."

Matthew cocked his head to the side and smiled into his shoulder. "Well…" Matthew started, "I don't really leave my room that much. It wouldn't be so weird for people to think that I'm not real if they haven't seen me."

And suddenly, Alfred dissolved into laughter. Matthew erupted into giggles in response.

"Arthur is an idiot." Alfred managed to finally bark out, "Only a crazy person would think that you aren't real. I mean look at you! You're right there!"

"Yeah," Matthew laughed softly, "You're right."

It took a few more moments before the laughter trickled down to a quiet murmur in their chests. The two were quiet for a long, bliss moment. Content in the mutual peace between them.

Alfred perked up. "Oh! Before I forget, check out what I found in the Social Studies hallway." He pushed himself up to his feet and scrambled over to his red, white, and blue backpack that lay strewn on the floor where he had dropped it.

He ripped open the zipper and began rummaging around for something.

"We were let out early from class so I was just walking around in the hallways and then I found a toy Pokeball hidden behind the water fountain!" Alfred pulled out a baseball sized red and white ball.

He tucked the toy in his arms and turned back around, "It's so cool! You can open it and put stuff in it too."

Alfred raced back to the mirror, and his reflection ran to meet him.

 **Author's Note:**

 **Happy Birthday to my buddy Sw00nbat on Tumblr! Sorry it's a bit late, I needed to do some heavy last minute editing.**

 **This was partially inspired by something that I saw on Pinterest like three years ago. It was a small comic where Canada got trapped in a mirror and the only one who knew was America because everyone else just thought that It was America's reflection in the mirror. Man I really wish that I book marked that comic because it was so good, but now I can't find it anymore D:**

 **This is just a one-shot so there will not be anymore updates, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope that you have a wonderful day!**

 **Snowy-Maplette**


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